Media delivery systems provide a substantial amount of media to users. Consequently, many users desire a form of media guidance through an interface that allows users to efficiently navigate among media selections, as well as local and remote devices, and to easily identify media that they may desire. An application which provides such guidance is referred to herein as an interactive media guidance application or, sometimes, a media guidance application or a guidance application.
Interactive media guidance applications may take various forms and be implemented on various devices depending on the media for which they provide guidance. One typical type of media guidance application implemented on user television equipment is an interactive television program guide. Interactive television program guides (sometimes referred to as electronic program guides) are well-known guidance applications that, among other things, allow users to navigate among and locate many types of media content including conventional television programming (provided via a television network), as well as pay-per-view programs, on-demand programs (as in video-on-demand (VOD) systems), Internet content (e.g., streaming media, downloadable media, Webcasts, etc.), and other types of media or video content. Guidance applications also allow users to navigate among and locate content related to the video content including, for example, video clips, articles, advertisements, chat sessions, games, etc.
With the advent of the Internet, mobile computing, and high-speed wireless networks, users are accessing media on personal computers (PCs) and other devices on which they traditionally did not, such as hand-held computers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), mobile telephones, or other mobile devices. On these devices users are able to navigate among and locate the media that has traditionally only been available through a television. Consequently, media guidance is necessary on these devices as well. The guidance provided may be for media content available only through a television, for media content available only through one or more of these devices, or for media content available both through a television and one or more of these devices. The media guidance applications may be provided as on-line applications (i.e., provided on a web-site), or as stand-alone applications or clients on hand-held computers, PDAs, mobile telephones, or other mobile devices. The various devices and platforms that may implement media guidance applications are described in more detail below.
In addition to allowing people greater access to media, recent technological advances have also made it easier for people to locate and communicate with other people that have similar interests. For example, social networking websites, such as MYSPACE™ and FRIENDSTER™, allow users to create a user-defined website that can act as a catalyst for meeting new people or staying in touch with old friends. (MYSPACE™ and FRIENDSTER™ are trademarks respectively owned by MySpace, Inc. and Friendster, Inc.) These social networking tools, however, are largely dependent on the information the user enters directly into them and are not, for example, integrated with other user profiles or user equipment, such as user television equipment.
Systems and methods for generating, maintaining and utilizing other types of user profiles, such as user profiles associated with television programming and other types of media, are discussed in, for example, commonly-assigned U.S. Pat. No. 7,185,355, issued Feb. 27, 2007, U.S. Patent Publication No. 2002/0174430, published Nov. 21, 2002, and U.S. Patent Publication No. 2005/0160458, published Jul. 21, 2005, which are each incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. In addition, commonly-assigned U.S. Patent Publication No. 2007/0157242, published Jul. 5, 2007 and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/809,341, filed May 31, 2007, which are each incorporated by reference herein in its entirety, discuss associating the viewing history and recording-related actions with a user profile that can be shared and/or implemented among a plurality of user equipment devices. However, there still exists a need for systems and methods that search for and display user profile information to other users based on, for example, viewing history or recording-related actions associated with a user profile. There is also a need for systems and methods that allow a user to access a particular user profile and provide and/or receive programming recommendations based on and to that user profile.